A cryptocurrency investor and a woman were arrested on Friday for a kidnapping scheme against an Italian tourist who was tortured for several weeks.
John Woeltz, the crypto investor, was charged with multiple counts, including second-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, and criminal possession of a firearm. He will remain in custody pending trial.
The woman, 24-year-old Beatrice Folchi, was reportedly arrested on charges of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree unlawful imprisonment, but the Manhattan DA’s office said it was now declining to prosecute her “pending further investigation.”
The two reportedly kidnapped the victim in an attempt to obtain the password to his Bitcoin wallet to steal an unknown amount of money. The victim says he was tortured in various ways, and death threats were made against his family if he did not hand over the passwords.
Eventually, he escaped the home and ran barefoot to find help.
Per ABC 7, the forms of torture he endured included electric shock, battery, psychological torture, and force-feeding drugs such as cocaine.
The video below shows Woeltz being arrested barefoot in his bathrobe.
Via ABC 7:
Per CBS News:
At the arraignment, prosecutors said that while the victim was being held, he told investigators he was shocked with electric wires, his leg was cut with a saw, and he was forced to smoke crack cocaine. Police later recovered a saw from the home, prosecutors said.
Evidence recovered from the scene includes chicken wire, ballistic helmets, body armor, night vision goggles, t-shirts with pictures of the victim with a crack cocaine pipe in his mouth, along with Polaroids of the victim with a firearm pointed at his head, prosecutors said in court.
Blood was also found in various areas of the apartment to indicate the victim had been tortured, prosecutors disclosed.
Prosecutors alleged in the hearing that at one point, Woeltz and an accomplice hung the victim over the ledge at the top of the stairs inside the home while threatening to kill him if he didn’t hand over his Bitcoin password.
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